The Unstoppable Wasp

To all the girls sick of waiting for a seat at the table.

We’re making our own tables from here on out.

She was going to force Nadia to hurt her, and Nadia hated when people forced her to hurt them.

Nadia didn’t like hurting people. Nadia liked science and her friends and her stepmom and those amazing sambusas from that Ethiopian place in the West Village that Shay ordered from for dinner every day for almost three months straight.

She liked Dazzler’s second album and podcasts about history and the way her brain felt when she finally cracked a problem she’d been trying to solve for months. She even liked her driving instructor. Really, there were very few things in the world that Nadia didn’t like.

It was kind of her thing.

But hurting people? That would never sit right with Nadia, no matter how many times she had to do it.

And as an Avenger, it turns out you actually have to do it a whole lot.

Nadia took a moment to assess her current situation. She was about fifty feet in the air, her biosynthetic wings beating fast enough to keep her aloft. She had made some adjustments to her father’s original designs—after lengthy experimentation involving several online mattress orders (did you know people will just bring mattresses to your door in a box? Amazing), Nadia had come to the conclusion that the ideal number of beats per second for her wings was one hundred and twenty-five.

The ideal number of times to land on an internet mattress after jumping off your own roof? Still zero.

Below her, a large and terrifying tower sprouted from the middle of a previously sleepy Brooklyn street. It looked kind of like a regular electrical transmission tower, except this one had what appeared to be a UFO on top of it, and it was bursting through the pavement in front of a Korean place that made top-notch kimchi aioli and definitely deserved way better. Huge arcs of electricity streaked from the top of the tower, striking at random as the ominous crackle of uncontrolled energy tore through the air. Nadia knew exactly what she was looking at, and she had to be careful to stay out of its danger zone as she determined her next move.

“Monica,” Nadia called out from behind her mask, “I liked the death ray much better when it was just a theory!”

“You know it’s called a Teleforce!” Monica Rappaccini shouted back from the base of the tower. Monica wasn’t a particularly flashy Super Villain, but she was familiar. Nadia had run into her a few times, and the encounters were never pleasant. A genius who had an unfortunate predilection for evil, Monica made up for a lack of super-powers with a bevy of truly horrific technological creations.

Nadia sighed. Clearly Monica had been busy since escaping S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. A death ray wasn’t exactly a one-day project.

In another universe, one where Monica wasn’t totally evil, Nadia might’ve wanted to meet Monica and maybe become friends, and then after that maybe even ask her to join G.I.R.L. (that’s Genius In action Research Labs), the all-girls science lab Nadia ran out of Pym Laboratories to try to get S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division) to invest in more up-and-coming women in science.

But nooooooooo. Instead, Monica had to go and join A.I.M. (that’s Advanced Idea Mechanics)—a group that also did science, but to overthrow governments and for various other nefarious purposes.

Nadia hated when people used science for evil. Science is inherently morally neutral; it just is. It’s people who choose whether to use science for good or for evil. Nadia was raised by people who chose the latter. She, personally, chose the former.

And Monica was alone, here. Nadia wasn’t.

“Sit rep?” Nadia asked. The headset in her helmet picked up her query and transmitted it back to G.I.R.L.

“No other A.I.M. agents on the scene,” reported Taina. “Kind of hilarious, actually.”

“Teleporter set for your quick exit, and it’s not even malfunctioning today!” added Shay.

Nadia was always happy to hear that. “Backup?”

“Ready and extremely cute,” joked Priya.

“In position,” Ying clarified. She wasn’t much of a talker, but that was all Nadia needed to hear. Her team had her back, and when they were working together, Nadia felt invincible.